Shared History
by Really Not Here Anymore
Summary: Rose/Tom. Rose is sixteen and thinks she is in love. Story may not match with 'Forever Rose', because I only just found out it existed! I'll buy it tonight, promise!
1. The Email and Blane

Shared History

_A Casson family fan0fiction (Rose/Tom)._

_Permanent Rose Casson is 16 and (thinks she) is in love with Blane Cross._

_**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the characters from Hillary McKay's original novels ('Saffy's Angel', 'Indigo's Star' etc), however I do own the rights to any other characters I may choose to add.**_

* * *

The Email and Blane

You know the feeling you get when you bump into an ex in town? (Or wherever, actually…) That sort of embarrassed "Oh!"?

That is really what I should have been feeling right now, when, eight years after I last saw him, I got an email from Tom Levine. This wasn't the first email we'd exchanged by a long shot - me and him mailed practically every week! It was just that this time I was looking down at the screen of my new laptop (Michael's latest birthday present) from my bed, where I was sitting with my boyfriend, Blane. And I was blushing.

_--_

_FROM: "Tom Levine" _

_TO: "Rose Casson" _

_**RE: Coming to visit!**_

_--_

_Aloha, Permanent Rose!  
It's been a while, crocodile, eh?  
Well, I just thought I'd message you to let you know that I'm coming back to England for a visit soon!_

_Indy knows already - Sarah's given him permission (haha) to let me stay with them for a few weeks! Well… me and Katie…_

_Still, it's weird how Sarah & Indy ended up together after so long! What ever happened to Caddy and Michael or Saffy and that delightful Oscar, Rosy-pose?_

_Anyway, I'd love to see you again!_

_Let me know if I can - I'm arriving next week!  
Write back, Love,_

_Tom xxxx_

_--_

"Who's Tom?" Blane asked me, punching one of my pillows and sounding annoyed.

"Just… someone. No one, really." I told him, trying to concentrate on his gorgeous brown hair (he reminded me of Tom a lot, actually… and he was American!), and not on the flippy feeling in my chest.

"So… why did he call you 'Permanent Rose', then?"

"Because that's my name!"

"No it's not! Your name's Rose!

"Blane! I thin I know my own name!" i shouted, suddenly irrationally angry.

"Whoa, Ro!" he laughed, "Relax!"

"I will not relax!" I yelled at him, slamming down the top of my lap-top and glowering. "And DO NOT CALL ME RO!"

"Do you know what?" he sighed, standing up and leaning over to plant a kiss on my forehead, "I'll see you later."

He winked at me as he left the room, and I suddenly found myself questioning what I ever saw in him; he was everything I had thought I'd ever wanted; American, and a proper, clichéd tall-dark-and-handsome guy, a year older than me. But all of a sudden, it was like someone was removing my rose-tinted glasses and I was realising that he was brash, loud, insensitive and cheesy.

All it took was one little echo of my past, a reminder of the guy I had once thought I loved, and my heart was dancing the jig in my chest.

Basically, I was confused.


	2. What Saffy Said

What Saffy Said

"Cheer up, Rosy-pose. You never know, it might never happen!" Saffron smiled at me.

"Shut up, Saffy!" I yelled, throwing my spoon back into my cereal angrily, and causing milk to splatter all over my school-tie.

"Oh, Rose…" Saffy whispered. She recognised my tone of voice, or the look on my face, or something… "It's boy troubles, isn't it?"

So she did recognise it then…

"Yes."

"Is Blane… erm… pressuring you to… do anything, Rose?"

"SAFFY!!"

"Oh, so not that." She muttered, putting down her hair-straightners and leaping down from where she was sitting on the kitchen work-top, to come and sit beside me. She ran her fingers through my (now straight) brown hair (streaked hot pink) and sighed. "Are you going to tell me, Rosy-pose?" She asked me.

I ended up telling her everything. And I regretted it.

"Well, it's obvious isn't it?" she laughed as she drove me to school, - Saffy learned to drive far faster than Caddy. Probably because she wasn't in love with her instructor - "you're in love with Tom!"

"But I love Blane!"

"Rose. The only reason I'm driving you to school this morning is so that you can avoid Blane, isn't it?"

"Well… yes…"

"So you don't love him, do you?"

"Oh, and YOU would know, Saffy!" I pointed out snidely.

The thing was, the only one of us Casson kids who had been lucky in love was Indy. He and Sarah had spent the time that she was at university living in sin and had got married last year (much to the relief of Sarah's mother). Caddy, meanwhile, was still "getting over" Michael, eight years after she called it off. I'd been with Blane for two year now, after I'd fallen head-over-heels for his hair and his American accent. But now I was reconsidering. Saffy, though, was the worst of us all. She had taken an Honours Degree in God-alone-knows-what, and had been completely besotted with some guy named Jacob. They'd had a child together, a little girl named Bliss, and he'd then ditched her. She was now living back home, with Mum taking 'care' of Bliss, and she was working for some posh law firm in town. Still, Saffy was heart-broken. And she let us all know about it. Regularly.

So, you know, she couldn't exactly talk.

"Whatever you say, Rose." She smiled knowingly as we pulled up in front of school.

"When does Tom arrive?"

"Tuesday." I muttered with a sigh, and I climbed out of the car.


	3. Tom and Katie

Tom and Katie (sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G)

Tuesday came around all too quickly. Indy and Sarah went to meet Tom and the mysterious Katie (was she his girlfriend? She had to be his girlfriend… please don't let her be his girlfriend…) at the airport in the morning and they were due back sometime after I finished school. (Ohmigod!! What if she's his _wife_??)

I left school early so that I could make-sure I was there when they got back. They were going to come to our house before they went to Indigo and Sarah's. I sat on the sofa, nervously waiting for about three hours. I honestly don't know why I was nervous. I had dumped Blane last Thursday, and Saffy kept saying that I was still in love with Tom, and do you know what? Maybe I was… but he was twenty-one now, and I was sixteen… and it seemed like he had a girlfriend, so I don't know why on earth I was nervous… anyway, they arrived, finally, at 5:30.

As soon as I heard the doorbell I ran to get it. Mum was still in the shed with Bliss, and Saffy was still at work, but I wanted to make-sure I was the person who opened the door. As I did, I pinned a huge grin across my face, hoping that everything was going to be alright. Tom and Indy were chatting, Sarah was smiling and Katie was… well, Katie was beautiful.

When Tom realised I'd opened the door, he smiled at me and said "Oh, wow! Hi, Permanent Rose!" As soon as he said that, I realised that Saffron was right, completely, totally and entirely right… I was still head-over-heels for Tom, and I had been for eight years. He was taller now than he had been, with broad shoulders and scruffy brown hair, the same as he had always been. He was wearing jeans, board trainers and a hoody, and as soon as we'd got Sarah's wheel-chair inside the house, he hugged me tightly and kissed my cheek, as if I was a real adult friend, not his best friend's kid sister.

"I've missed you, Permanent Rose!" Tom smiled as he lay sprawled out in our garden, soaking in the early April heat, just like we'd done so many summers before. The tall, white-blonde haired and blue-eyed Katie sat delicately beside him, her hand on his back and Indy sat leaning against Sarah's wheelchair. I perched on top of a guinea pig hutch, trying to look sophisticated. (Obviously, I was nothing compared to Katie, but I could try.)

I grinned at him. "I've missed you too, Tom." I said. I didn't add the 'more than you could possibly imagine' bit, but Indy practically did. "She talks about you all that time, Tom, you know that?" he laughed.

We talked for hours, about everything, right up until the sun was fully set and the stars were glittering in the sky. Indy and Sarah started to look slightly tired, and they started to suggest that maybe it was time to go. I just wanted to shout "NO! STAY!" at them, because I hadn't quite figured out the situation with Katie and Tom yet.

Oh. No. Wait. I had.

He sat up quickly, and she leant across to kiss him. It was only on his cheek, but it was clear enough to me that they meant business…

As I waved them off, Tom leant out of the car window and shouted at me "Don't look so glum, Rosy-Pose! I'll come pick y'up from school tomorrow!"

YESSSSS!!


	4. Kiran and The Cousin

Kiran and The Cousin

I spent all day at school on Wednesday talking about Tom. My best-friend, Kiran (she's a girl), was sick of me talking about him. We sat on the wall outside school waiting for him to come and meet me, and she just came right out and asked me "do you love him, Rosy?" I blushed and she stared at me. "HA!" she laughed, "you do! You soooo do, Rose Casson!"

"I'm not going to deny it…" I whispered, staring at the pavement, embarrassed. Kiran had known me long enough to remember when Tom was first around, and she knew how things had been then… I shouldn't have been surprised that she remembered.

"What?" she asked.

"I'm not going to deny it Kiran." I said, bluntly.

"WHAT!? You just _don't_ that, Rose! You just don't admit it!"

"Why not? I'm an artist… I'm in touch with my feelings."

"So you really so love him?"

"Yes."

"What about Blane?"

"What about him?"

"You went out with him for two years!"

"I've loved Tom for eight!"

Right at that second, a shadow fell over us. I looked up and my heart melted all over again. He was so… Tom. Suddenly, in that second, I knew why it had taken Caddy so long to get over Michael… nothing can compare to this feeling. Nothing.

Kiran stood up, staring at me, probably feeling my embarrassment - what if he had heard? - and then she turned to Tom. "Hi!" she said, bold as brass, "you must be Tom! I'm Kiran! Rose has told me soooo much about you!" He looked stunned at that, and glanced from Kiran and her blonde pigtails to me and my bright read face in confusion. "Erm… hi, Kiran." He said, unsmiling, and then he turned to me. "What were you saying, Rose? About me? I heard my name, as I walked up…"

"NOTHING!" Kiran yelled quickly, which didn't exactly help.

"Ok…" Tom muttered, and then he said "So… you coming, Rosy-pose? Me and Katie have got some pretty important news to tell you!"

"WHAT??"

"I said we'd meet her in town in half an hour, is that OK?"

I looked to Kiran for moral support and she nodded vigorously.

"Fine!" I chirped, trying not to give anything away…

… But… what if they were getting married… and they wanted me to be their bridesmaid? (I already ruined Caddy's wedding, I don't intend to ruin anyone else's!)… or what if they were having a baby? But… Katie didn't look pregnant… or…

A million other "what ifs" worked their way through my head as Tom and I walked into town in perfect silence. I couldn't bring myself to talk to him, and he clearly didn't have anything to say to me, so we just walked in total silence.

As we entered the café where we were supposed to meet Katie, I felt especially childish. I know that when I originally met Tom, I had only been eight years old, so he had practically watched me grow up, but that was beside the point… how could crazy brunette-and-pink Rose in her trashy school uniform and converse trainers, splattered in paint ever compare to blonde-bombshell Katie in jeans, a fitted t-shirt and heels? She couldn't… I couldn't… and that was the end of it. It was time for me to snap out of an eight-year-long day-dream and face reality; Katie was a part of Tom's life that I could _never _be.

I pulled up a seat beside her and sat down, forcing a grin. "What do you want to drink, Rosy?" Tom asked me, standing over the two of us and smiling. (To be fair I couldn't tell who he was smiling at, but I suspect it was Katie…) "I'll have an ice-tea!" I grinned, unable to resist.

"Ice-tea…" he laughed, "how could I forget?" He ruffled my hair as he passed, and went over to the counter to buy some drinks.

Then it was just me and Katie.

"So…" I said, and she nodded.

"Yeah…"

"Erm…"

"So you've known Tom pretty long, then, Rosy?" she asked me, clearly forcing conversation.

"Yeah. Eight years…" I said, trying not to look her in the eye, "and it's Rose. Not Rosy."

"Tom called you Rosy."

"Well… he's Tom…"

"You've got it that bad, huh?"

"WHAT?!"

"Rose, please. Don't patronise me. I'm probably only... what? Two years older then you, honey. I know the look on your face."

"And you… don't mind?"

"Heavens, no!" she laughed in her pretty American drawl, blonde hair swishing in her wake. "Sweetie, he's my cousin!"

"Your WHAT?" I asked her.


	5. Holding Hands

Holding Hands

"My cousin. Don't worry…" Katie smiled, and suddenly she wasn't too beautiful, she was just normal. Nice looking, but normal. "Oh!" she laughed, still looking hard at me. "You thought I was his girlfriend!" she said, as if it was the funniest thing ever.

"Well… yes…"

Right at that moment Tom arrived, and handed me my ice-tea. "At least someone else made it this time!" he grinned, sitting opposite Katie. I just grinned. I grinned and I grinned and I grinned.

Because things might turn out the way I wanted them to after all!

"So…" Tom said, ten minutes later, "you had something to tell Rose, Kat."

"Oh! Yeah…" Katie said, and she put her mocha-frappe-cappuccino (or whatever) down on the table. Then she turned to me, deadly serious, and said "I need to ask you something, Rose."

"Oh?"

"Will you promise me… will you promise me that you'll look after my favourite cousin when I go back to America?"

She had me there. I choked on my ice-tea and sent it splattering everywhere. By the time I'd been to the toilet to dab it off my school shirt (Saffy, who is now in charge of laundry, would've killed me!) and got back to the table, Tom and Katie seemed to have completely forgotten what we had been talking about and they just looked at me when I asked what Katie had meant.

When I come to think of it, that whole thing could've been inside my head…

Still.

As we left the café, Tom knotted his hand into mine. I was so shocked at this that I looked up at him in surprise. He was holding Katie's hand on the other side too… but that was beside the point. My hand felt warm and happy, like it fitted perfectly into his. I smiled to myself, determined to keep that feeling in my mind forever.


	6. Music Shop Man

Music Shop Man

"Hey!" Tom shouted as we approached the music shop where he used to play the black guitar, "I haven't been in there in years!"

"I have." I said in a small voice.

He looked down at me and smiled. "I bet you have, Permanent Rose!"

We walked in, Katie behind us, and the man behind the desk pointed at me. "Not you again!" he laughed. And then he looked at Tom. "What ever happened to Blane?"

"I ditched him." I told the Music Shop man, leaning up against the counter. "He was a moron."

"In that case, Rose, I couldn't agree more… so… this is your new boyfriend then?" I stared at Tom and he stared at me and we both shouted "NO!" simultaneously.

"But you looked so much like a couple, didn't they, Blondie?" he asked Katie, who was hovering in the corner. She just laughed knowingly. Then the Music Shop Man realised something. He pointed at Tom and said "That accent! I recognise the accent!"

"Probably." Tom laughed. "I spent most of my life in here eight years ago."

"YOU'RE TOM!" he shouted, and Tom nodded, and I blushed. "You still play the guitar?" Tom nodded, and the Music Shop Man turned to walk into the back of the shop. He walked out carrying two guitars.

"There." He announced, placing them both on the counter. One was sleek and black, a lot like Tom's, and the other was brown wood. Tom reached out for the black one, but Music Shop Man interrupted. "That one is Rosy's." he smiled.

Tom and I both took a guitar and sat down on the two stools where we had sat so long ago. "You play now?" Tom laughed, watching me tune mine.

"Yes." I told him. "I learned."

"Why?"

"For you." I said in a small voice, picking up my plectrum off the floor. "What do you play now?" I asked him.

"I make it up as I go along… same as I always do…"

He started to play, and I joined in, both of us playing different songs, completely at random. Katie came and stood behind us, and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Ask him to sing." She whispered in my ear.

"Why?" I asked her.

"He's written some… songs." She whispered again.

When I shook my head, she decided to take the bull by the horns so to speak, and asked him herself.

"Are you sure, Katie?" he laughed, staring at her. I could tell she knew something I didn't… and I think she knew more than Tom thought she did too. "Yes." She said. "Sing her the song you sang me last time."


	7. Intertwined Destiny

'An Intertwined Destiny'

(apparently)

"And I love the way she smiles

And the way she doesn't care

There's something special

About the way she looks at me

A dream

A hope

An intertwined destiny

And a shared history…"

As he finished singing, I clapped, and I felt tears prickling the corners of my eyes. I knew that that song had come from the heart; those weren't just words, they were words _for_ someone… someone who I was going to kill if ever I met them.

Katie smiled at me and raised her eyebrows slightly. "Rose…?" she whispered, "Rose, don't you want to know what that song's called?"

"History, I suppose."

"She's right!" Tom said quickly, ruffling my hair again. But… when I come to think of it… he butted in a little _too_ quickly.

"Tom?" I asked, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing." He said, again too quickly.

We left the shop after that, Tom and Katie and me. We went back to Indy and Sarah's house. I like their house. It reminds me of a cross of our house and Sarah's mother's house. There is mess, but the biscuit tins are always full, and that's the way it should be. That is how my house will be when I grow up.

As soon as we arrived, Sarah stared at me in an odd way. She indicated that I should go into the living room with her, while Katie, Tom and Indy headed through to the back garden.

"I'm calling Saffy." She said.

"Why?" I asked, moving a magazine over on the sofa to make room for myself.

"Because there's something wrong with you, Rosy-pose, and I hate to see you like that!"

"Saffy knows what's wrong. She'll only laugh again."

"So tell me. I won't laugh."

And suddenly, in that moment, I found myself trusting Sarah more than I had ever trusted anyone in my life. I found myself swallowing hard and whispering "I love Tom, Sarah. And Saffy knows it."

"Rosy-pose!" Sarah smiled, "you have always loved Tom! We all knew that!"

"No…" I muttered, "you don't understand."

"Enlighten me." She said, as only Sarah can.

"I don't just love Tom, Sarah, I'm IN LOVE with Tom!"

"Like I said, Rosy-pose, you always have."  
I could think of nothing else to say then other than "I suppose."

"So," Sarah asked, "what are you going to do about it?"

Just then there was a knock at the door, and an American voice (a FEMALE American voice) asked "Is this a private party, or can I come in?"

"No, come in, Katie!" Sarah shouted, and Katie walked in, closing the door carefully behind her.

"I'm sorry for interrupting you both…" she murmured, "I just couldn't take the testosterone!" When no one replied, she grimaced to herself and said "so… what's new?"

"Rosy-pose is in love with your cousin." Sarah said.


	8. Tell Me Something I Don't Know

Tell Me Something I Don't Know.

Katie laughed at that. "Tell me something I don't know!" she said, stifling her giggles. I had to ask her what was funny. I couldn't stand the smug look on her face. She reminded me too much of Saffy. "Well…" she answered, "how can I put this… Rose, honey, the feeling is entirely mutual."

"WHAT?" I screeched, my heart leaping within me.

"Why do you think we came over in the first place?" I shrugged, but Sarah looked enlightened. "I couldn't stand his moping any longer, so I decided to bring him back to see you." Katie said.

My heart started doing some very funny things inside me then… some very, very strange things indeed…

"So… what do I do?" I asked Katie, and Sarah, for that matter, because she as the one who had an answer:

"You kiss him, silly!"

"What?" I asked her, amazed.

"Look, when Indy wanted to get me to that stupid disco, the one that gave us all the flu, he made a special effort… he showed me 'how he did special', remember?"

(How could I forget?)

"Well… you already did that for Tom. And he already did that for you."  
(Yes… I sent him twenty Valentines cards in one year…) (Almost) (And he sent me one every single year, even though he was twenty-one and I was his best friend's kid-sister.)

"So all that remains is for you to walk up to him in the garden, NOW, and kiss him."

"Oh, right!" I laughed, "like that will happen!"

"Just do it. I promise you he will kiss you back." Katie grinned, "and if he doesn't, you have my full permission to kill me."

"Ohhkayy…" I nodded. "I think Sarah's right."

And with that I stood up and bounded across the room, down the hall-way, through the kitchen and into the garden. Tom and Indigo were standing next to Sarah's pond (it is hers, not Indy's) (like the guinea pigs were Caddy's not Indy's) (even though Indy did most of the work) and they were talking.

I watched them for a couple of minutes before I could wait no longer. I walked towards them, pushed Indy out of the way, and wrapped my arms around Tom's neck. I watched the surprised look on his face for a couple of seconds, and then I leaned up, standing on tip-toes to reach, and kissed him.

I have to admit that for a few horrible seconds I thought that I was going to have to kill Katie… but then, as suddenly as I had kissed him, he was kissing me back and I realised I wouldn't have to kill her after all.

We must have been there for a good couple of minutes, because there were eight unspoken years to put into that kiss, and when we finally pulled apart and he wrapped his arms round my waist (like I had mine round his neck), I turned to look at the others. Indy was laughing, Katie was jumping up and down, and Sarah was clapping, very very hard indeed.

So I did the only sensible thing I could do in that situation.

I leant up and kissed him again.


	9. Appendices

Appendices

Appendices

This is Kiran's idea. She read what I wrote and she wasn't impressed about how it ended. I thought it ended perfectly, and so, it seems, did Tom.

Kiran says that I missed loads out, though. She says I haven't said anything about:

1. Everyone knowing

Apparently, me and Tom were the only people in the whole world who did not know that we both loved each other. (Obviously I knew I loved Tom) (And he knew he loved me) (We just didn't see the 'bigger picture' as Kiran says)

Apparently, even Daddy saw it coming.

2. Tom and Katie

Tom is staying here forever and ever and ever.

Well.

For a very long time anyway. (He is staying with Indy.) ( Sarah is not happy, but she says that you can't stop true love) (As in Me-and-Tom)

And Katie is going back to New York to tell everyone that Tom has finally kissed the girl he has loved for eight years. (Eight Years!!) (The same as me!!)

3. Sarah's joke

Sarah thought that it was very funny that me and Tom played guitars together in the Music Shop. She told everyone that we had been "making beautiful music together", which was not funny. Even though it was true. Sort of.

4. The Song

The song Tom sang wasn't really called 'History', and I'm not going to have to kill the girl it is about.

It is called 'Permanent Rose'.


End file.
